


Duel

by Holde_Maid



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Originally Posted on LiveJournal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-30
Updated: 2008-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-18 21:29:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7331290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holde_Maid/pseuds/Holde_Maid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Duncan and Methos are having a duel of sorts in Joe's bar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duel

**Author's Note:**

> Rating: Gen;   
> Warnings: unbeta'ed;   
> Spoilers: none, I should hope;   
> Timeframe: between the Horseman episodes and Season 6  
> Disclaimer: None of these characters nor their native universes are mine. No profit made, no copyright infringement intended. The boys are just here for a little entertainment and will afterwards be sent back home. ;)

  
For a while, Joe had sat behind the counter and just watched Duncan and Methos. They were leaning against the bar and a careless spectator might have suspected a cross between a very intense flirt and a staring contest. Which wouldn't've been all wrong, either. It was a contest, of that Joe was sure, because he'd been promised (in writing) that the winner would pay Methos' tab. Other than that, the whole thing was a mystery. The guys had come in like this already. For all he knew, they had been at it for hours or even days.  
  
At any rate, they'd come in exchanging strange sentences and meaningful looks. Methos had hardly touched his beer. It had taken Dawson a while to realise they were speaking in sayings. Talk about Watching being educational.   
  
Yeah, educational and exhausting. Translating everything back in his head wasn't so bad. The hard part was guessing what they were really talking about.   
  
Right now Joe suspected they were speaking of Richie, who was currently on a tour with his beloved bike, because Duncan had just said fondly, "He that travels far, knows much." It was all in the tone...   
  
Methos answered with a laugh, stressing the first syllable, " _Doubt_ is the key of knowledge. He that nothing questions, nothing learns." Yeah, well, ... ugh, this stirred way too many memories. Better not go there.- And anyway, what was the man driving at? Just the fact that Richie was still a young fool, or was there something else, maybe about the tall Immortal facing Methos?  
  
"Knowledge is a wild thing and must be hunted before it can be tamed," Mac offered diplomatically, turning his palms up.  
  
"Many dogs may easily worry one hare." Methos shook his head and switched to a more old-fashioned dialect. "It is no play where one greets and another laughs." He used more languages and more seperate sayings to make his points. Joe wondered whether that meant the ancient Immortal was ahead. His cocky sarcasm was nothing to go by, was it?  
  
Perhaps not, since Duncan was calmly holding his own after a ponderous pause, "Knowledge is the mother of all virtue; all vice proceeds from ignorance." A commonplace, that. No caring in the velvet voice.  
  
By contrast, Methos was clearly alluding to something. "A little learning is a dangerous thing." He lowered his sardonic voice and tilted his head. "Learning makes a good man better, and an ill man worse."   
  
Did MacLeod get it? Joe wasn't absolutely sure he did, and not sure he wanted to. Well, there were things between the Immortals that he didn't know or couldn't access. Was this one of them?  
  
Mac shrugged, "Knowledge without practice makes but half an artist." The he grinned. "Poverty is the common fate of scholars."  
  
Recognition lighted Methos' eyes when he heard this Chinese saying, but a moment later the light died. "Love does much, money does everything." Bitter words, and the Immortal sounded like he'd coined them.  
  
"Excuse me?" A customer. Joe sized him up. Guy in leather jacket and blue jeans. Definitely over 21. Well, probably. But the driving license and ID card had seemed fine. Either way, he was no older than, say, 25. Not one of the regulars, but he'd been here a few times. And, alas, he could hold his liquor and hadn't had much yet. Dang, now Joe had no excuse not to go and get him his bourbon. Ah, as long as they didn't finish their game while he got the fresh bottle...  
  
As he threw away the old one, he heard Duncan's softly spoken words drift over, "Turn about is fair play." Dang he'd missed something already. They had moved to some other topic. The voice had grown rough with emotion.  
  
Oblivious to the Immortals, the customer was inclined to chatter. It took some effort to keep one's attention on him, but Joe managed.   
  
At length the young man came to the point. Shyly he asked how the jam sessions worked and whether or not anyone could come by and join in. Cute, but... if he was that shy about just asking, how should he handle going on stage? And what if he wasn't good enough?  
  
Joe immersed himself in trying solve that problem for him. After all, Dawson had seen many a talent before their rise to stardom, and several had been too shy to be noticed. He'd give the kid a break. Why not?  
  
When the young man left after two hours, the two Immortals were still at it. Joe had almost forgotten about them.  
  
"Kindness comes of will," Mac was currently postulating. It sure did with him.  
  
Methos' eyes left his to give Joe a conspiratory glance. "There is great force hidden in a sweet command." He even winked, leaving Joe utterly puzzled.  
  
Duncan thought for a while, sipping his beer, before he countered, "Fair words break no bones."  
  
A brief harsh laugh, and Methos spat, "Good words are good cheap." Ouch. Joe had never yet read that saying in quite that gloomy way. It was eerie how the old man could turn a phrase around without altering a single syllable!  
  
"Pity is akin to love."  
  
Even more sarcasm than before: "Charity covers a multitude of sins."  
  
Duncan lost his patience. He gulped down his beer, set the glass down in a very final looking gesture, and met the other Immortal's eyes again. "Plus ca change, plus c'est la même chose." _The more it changes, the more it is the same thing._ Now that was an allusion Joe understood clear as a bell.  
  
Obviously, Methos understood it, too. His face turned stony. He lowered his eyes.  
  
MacLeod's mouth formed a surprised o, as he noticed. Flustered, he tried to take back what could not be unsaid, "... I'm sorry! I ..."  
  
Methos ignored him. With the cheekiest of grins he turned to Dawson. "I win. Tell me that you, at least, realised I would!"


End file.
